While most of football America perched in front of their sets, smartphones in hand, to watch and interact with the NFL Draft extravaganza at Radio City Music Hall last week, it likely gave little thought or attention to a pot-stirrer of a column by Patrick Hruby posted on sportsonearth.com on the day of the first round.

“Abolish the NFL Draft," was the headline. To sum it up, while it works like a charm as entertainment, “It's also an exercise that we'd be better off without.’’

Naturally, the three days that ensued proved Hruby to be Nostradamus. Even as fans took to social media to proclaim the proceedings “boring,” they hung on every move, tidbit and announcement. It was riveting, if you like that sort of thing, which millions have proven that they do.

The point, though, was that in today’s NFL and all its restraints on payroll, salary, contracts, player movement and roster size, the draft is irrelevant. Technically, it always has been, but the evolution of the business since 1936 makes it even more so. If it disappeared, the league theoretically would still function just fine. Its seven-month offseason would look drastically different, though, and that’s no small thing.

This notion is one that the author breathed new life into, two years after it came and went in the run-up to the draft two years ago. Back then, agent Bryan Ayrault went on a Twitter flurry (preserved by the Sports Agents Blog site), that turned into a mini-debate with Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio.

Among Ayrault’s observations: “Competitive balance is a fallacy. The success of teams is determined by good ownership and scouting. Period.”

Regardless, “The Young And the Upside-Less” played out last week on NFL Network and ESPN for the entirety of the draft’s seven rounds and some 13 1/2 hours. Eliminating the reason for the whole spectacle was not a concept that got much traction.

Yet it’s worth wondering, in a couple of prominent instances from this year, whether the sport, its fans and the commodities displayed for the nation’s amusement (that is, the players) wouldn’t be much better off in the world described by Ayrault, Hruby and Co.

Keep this in mind as these recent examples are brought forth -- among the many indelible memories of drafts past are John Elway and Eli Manning committing minor acts of rebellion, refusing to go where the league told them to go.

Thus, if Manti Te’o had a chance to pitch himself to every NFL team instead of leaving his fate up to the draft order, would he pick San Diego? And would the Chargers pick him?

We’re conditioned to believe a few things without much question -- which round he was drafted determined what value he had as a player; teams that passed on him really weren’t impressed with him, that he’s in the perfect spot because he’s closer to his home, in a familiar culture and on the same team as one of his role models, the late Junior Seau.

A case could be made that the exact opposite is true for all of those. It doesn’t matter, because that’s how the system worked. Face it, Te’o chose to be as far from the draft as possible while remaining in the United States. Knowing what the last four months or so have been like for him, how does the additional chaos of this three-day reality series help him?

The same applies to Geno Smith, another “story” of the draft, thanks to the whole green-room subplot, which made for great theater for everybody but him. As with Seau, the drama revolved around being a “first-rounder” or a “top-10 pick” or a “top-half” or “bottom-half” pick. When he was picked -- after more drama revolving around returning for the second day, another forced TV-based contrivance -- Smith was overjoyed.

Was it for being drafted, period? For finishing his tenure as star of the annual show-within-a-show, “The Amazing Wait”? For being picked by a dysfunctional Jets team in the center of the media universe?

You’d never know or care about any of that if Smith could have had a hand in where he began his career. The example Hruby cites is Aaron Rodgers. He began his career tagged with his green-room wait and with sitting behind Brett Favre to live with his whims, waffling and ego. Think if he had a choice, he’d choose that scenario?

Then ... there’s the Honey Badger.

Tyrann Mathieu’s social and behavioral issues are well-documented. His move from college to the pros was destined to be complicated anyway. Did he need for the circus of the draft to add to it, or is there a different, more beneficial path he could have taken -- possibly to a better fit than, yes, another dysfunctional franchise in Arizona?

We’ll never know. The public spectacle of Smith, Te’o, Mathieu, Matt Barkley and the rest of the human chattel trotted across the stage or into our living rooms, will remain great off-season fodder for always-hungry fans.

Can those fans live without that and still support and appreciate the NFL? Hruby lays out the argument. Think it over. The next prime-time draft party is 12 months away.